The United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convened in Bali, Indonesia in early December to discuss life after the Kyoto Protocol. The legally binding, mandatory carbon emission limits set in 1997 are due to expire in 2012, leaving climate change gurus under intense pressure to move forward with tangible answers to the global warming threat.

It's evident that the UNFCCC is serious about renewable energy, as Yvo de Boer—Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC— stated clearly that renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency and biofuel are significant, if not critical, options to curb global warming.

An emissions manager for BP was also cited in a press release promoting the examination of CO2 Capture and geological Storage (CCS) technology as an industrial-scale investment for carbon emission reductions over the next 50 years and beyond.

CCS decarbonizes fossil fuels, capturing nearly 90 percent of the harmful greenhouse gas, apparently allowing power plants to continue burning fuels while significantly reducing carbon emissions. Fossil fuel consumption contributes more than 3/4 of the United States' carbon emissions, so the idea would certainly warrant consideration, but the fact still remains that fossil fuels are not inexhaustible, leaving no option for renewing these resources for future energy production. Much of the examination into CSS will revolve around such issues, in addition to determining the long-term investment building and operating CSS technology on a global scale would require.